Be Content

Fame or self: which is more important? Your possessions or your person: which is worth more to you? Gain or loss: which is worse?
Therefore, to be obsessed with “things” is a great waste, The more you gain, the greater your loss.
Being content with what you have been given [Wu: To know when you have enough], You can avoid disgrace. Knowing when to stop, You will avoid danger. That way you can live a long and happy life.

(Tao Teh King 44, Mabry’s translation)

Fame or self: which is more important?

In this world of externalized consciousness, people are much more interested in what people only think they are rather than what they really are. Further, they will compromise, degrade and even falsify themselves so others will have the opinion of them they desire. This is incredibly dangerous, because in time such people will completely lose touch with their true character. I have known people who believed they were what people considered them to be, lacking any self-awareness whatsoever. Needless to say, these were thoroughly characterless people, hardly even two-dimensional personalities. Some were one-dimensional, just being a husk with a name, a mask with no one really behind it.

Your possessions or your person: which is worth more to you?

I think we know the general answer to that: possessions alone matter. There are even those who pride themselves on frugality or austerity whose lack of possessions are most important to them. And there are those engaged frantically in what is known as “conspicuous non-consumption.” So whether there is a desire for more or less, material possessions define most people–both to themselves and others. These people, as well as those discussed in the previous section, have not just lost their soul, they have tossed it away for the sake of appearance. As Galsworthy satirically put it: “What does it profit a man to gain his soul and lose his possessions?”

Gain or loss: which is worse?

This has already been discussed in Section 42 where it is said: “Truly, one may gain by losing; And one may lose by gaining.” So now we are being urged to look at the consequences of gain and loss in regard to our personal integrity, not to make a blanket evaluation of the two.

Therefore, to be obsessed with “things” is a great waste, the more you gain, the greater your loss.

To be possessed by possessions is to lessened by them the more are gained. Here, too, people can be reduced to mere husks, their life energies drained away by their money and possessions. Once a friend and I encountered a very wealthy but obnoxious young man. When the man left, my friend commented to me: “If he wasn’t a ‘rich kid’ he would be nothing.” The spectacle of such people is terribly sad. Jesus was actually giving practical psychological advice when he told the rich young man: “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21).

Being content with what you have been given

Wu: “To know when you have enough, you can avoid disgrace.” There is no doubt that the stress of getting more and more can ruin physical and mental health, what to speak of the anxiety about keeping what has been gained. Having just the right amount and being content with it contributes to general well-being. So many people come to ruin personally and socially when this is not known or followed.

Knowing when to stop, you will avoid danger.

This applies to all aspects of life, not just material welfare. There is nothing in human life that cannot become a curse when overdone. Knowing what is necessary and never going beyond that is the formula for success and happiness.

About OCOY.org

This site presents the path of meditation and practical spiritual life and is a service of Light of the Spirit Monastery (Atma Jyoti Ashram), which is located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA.

Dedication of OCOY.org

This site is inspired by and dedicated to Paramhansa Yogananda, who introduced yoga meditation and the goal of self realization to the American people, and whose writings reveal the underlying unity of original Christianity and original Yoga.